Featherweight

I just heard Featherweight's new album, it's good stuff!  Some good friends of mine- Vic, Zach, and Tim- are in this band.  Check it out here, and consider donating!

Okay, I'm going to Frankfurt.  I'll be back Monday!  Have a nice weekend!

#100!

So here's my 100th post, it seems fitting to write it in Deutsch.  This was the Zwischenbericht (sort of like a Midyear-Report) that I sent to AFS.  It's a few weeks old, but you can check it out anyway- I know not everyone on this blog can speak German, but at least a good fraction can. Viel Spass!

Timothy Miller

USA

Seit September habe ich hier in Lübeck gewohnt.  Hier habe ich ein neues Leben erschafft: ich bin ein Mitglied von einer neuen Familie geworden, ich habe Freunde gefunden, ich habe Erfolg in der Schule gehabt, und ich habe mich in mein neues Land verliebt.

Familie

Ich habe bis jetzt überhaupt keine Probleme mit meiner Gastfamilie gehabt.  Ganz in Gegenteil kann ich nicht wirklich erklären, wie zufrieden ich bin.  Ich bin der älteste von sechs Kindern.  Am Anfang des Jahres, war es meine Familie, die mir Deutsch beigebracht hatte.  Mimi (6) und Stine (9) waren immer glücklich, mich zu verbessern.  Dass ich immer Kinderbücher las, fanden sie auch ganz lustig.  Noch besser war drei Wochen später, wenn mein Deutsch gut genug geworden war, die Kinderbücher vorzulesen.  Stine malt immer ganz viele Bilder für mich, und sagt dass ich die Bilder nach Hause in die USA bringen soll, und Mimi nannte mich „Mein Tim“.  Ich habe keine Zweifel, dass ich mich an diese Mädchen ein Leben lang erinnern werde.

Hannes (10) ist mein einziger Bruder.  Eigentlich sind wir einander ähnlich:  Hannes findet Verkehrsmittel, wissenschaftliche Experimenten, und Music voll cool.   Hannes und ich passen wohl gut zusammen: Ich habe ihm Blues auf seiner Cello beigebracht, er zeigt mir immer was er neu gelernt hat, und wir spielen mit seinen Legos zusammen.  Ich glaube, dass es Hannes sehr freut, einen Bruder zu haben. 

Mia (13) nervt.  Aber ich nerve sie zurück. Sie ist wie eine wirkliche Schwester; sie soll nerven.  Das is die Weise, die es sein soll.  Sie klaut immer meine Hausschuhe, aber so ist es gerecht- normalerweise habe ich irgendwie angefangen. Mia ist cool.

Lotta (16) ist erstmal in November angekommen.  Davor war sie in Iowa, in den USA.  Lotta und ich passen auch voll gut zusammen.  Zugegeben, wir haben nicht nicht so viel Zeit zusammen verbrachte wie Mia, Hannes und ich, aber trotzdem hilft Lotta mir mit meinen deutschen Hausaufgaben, und ich korrigiere ihre Französisch und Englisch.  Wir sind ein gutes Team!

Meine Eltern, Alex und Anke, sind auch wundervolle Menschen.  Alex ist ein Querdenker und ein Problemlöser, Anke ist eine Mutter und eine Denkerin.  Viele Tage haben Alex und ich zusammen gearbeitet, Holz für unsere Öffnen zu spalten, und vielen Nächten haben Anke und ich bis spät in der Nacht über Bücher, Philosophie, und Ideen gesprochen.  Alex und Anke sind immer total nett zu mir, und wir sind gute Freunde. 

Eigentlich gibt es kein Wort das gut genug erklären kann, wie glücklich ich in meiner Familie bin.  Wenn ich „Familie“ sage, meine ich es wirklich, dass wir eine Familie sind.

Freunde

Ich finde es nicht schwierig, Freunde in Deutschland zu finden.  Für mein erstes Paar Wochen hier habe ich viel zeit mit anderen AFS Schülern in meinem Sprachkurs verbracht.  Danach habe ich viele gute Freunde in meinem Jahrgang gefunden.  Immer noch treffe ich manchmal mit meinen AFS Freunde, besonders mit Geo, der auch aus den USA kommt.  Meine Freunde und ich gehen gerne in die Disko, das Kino, oder einfach in die Stadt.  Letzte Woche habe ich ein Paar Freunde eingeladen, mit mir zu einer Superbowl-Party zu gehen.

Ich habe auch Freunde in meiner Bigband gefunden und auch ein paar Freunde ziemlich spontan kennen gelernt.  Zum Beispiel, in den Winterferien war ich mit meiner Familie auf  einer Musikfreizeit. Da habe ich auch viele Freunde gefunden.  Da habe ich auch meine Freundin, Sinja, kennen gelernt.  Von ihr lerne ich viel Deutsch, da wir fast jede Nacht chatten.  Auf dieser Weise entwickelt sich mein Deutsch viel schneller.

Schule

Schule ist ziemlich leicht.  Eigentlich find ich es zu leicht: ich habe viele von meinen Fächern schon in den USA gehabt.  Ich glaube, dass mein größtes Bedauern von diesem Jahr ist das ich in die 11te, anstatt in die 12te Klasse gegangen bin.  Trotzdem bin ich gluecklich in die 11te- dieses Bedauern ist auch nicht so gross.  Meine Klassenkameraden sind aber voll lustig, und ich fühle, dass ich eine wahre Rolle in meiner Klasse habe.  Unsere Schule hat einen Laden, den ich mit Kristin, eine Freundin, führe.  Ich bin auch für die Finanzen verantwortlich.  

Ich gehe auf die Freie Waldorfschule Lübeck.  Sie ist ein Bisschen anders als normale Gymnasien: die Waldorfschule hat unter ihrem Kursangebot Handarbeit und auch andere besondere Fächer zu bieten.  Dass ich Tischlern lernen kann, zum Beispiel, finde ich echt cool.  Dieses Jahr habe ich auch HTML, Plasticien, und Kunst Geschichte gelernt, zusätzlich zu meinen normalen Stunden: Mathe, Englisch, Französisch, Deutsch, etc.  Ich habe auch die Gelegenheit, ein Praktikum zu machen.  Ich habe schon mit einer Firma in Lübeck gesprochen, und ich freue mich schon darauf, dass ich in Mai bei einer U-Bootbaufirma arbeiten kann.

Trotzdem würde ich gerne ein echtes Gymnasium ausprobieren.  Ich habe es mir übergelegt, vielleicht ein Quasi-Midstay zu machen.  Da ich ein PPP Stipendiat bin, hatte ich nicht die Gelegenheit, ein normales Midstay zu machen.  Nächste Woche werde ich AFS fragen, ob ich mit einem Freund von einer anderen Stadt für einige Wochen wohnen darf, damit ich auch ein Midstay erleben kann.

Sprache

Offensichtlich ist mein Deutsch viel weniger als perfekt (Geo hat mir viel mit meiner Grammatik in diesem Bericht geholfen).  Trotzdem bin ich glücklich, mit allem das ich schon gelernt habe.  Ich bin hier mit gar keinen Deutschkenntnissen angekommen, aber jetzt kann ich Bücher lesen, meine Lehrer verstehen, Berichte schreiben, und, hauptsachlich, mit Leuten reden.  Ich weiß, dass ich auf meine Aussprache, Akzent, und Grammatik arbeiten muss, aber ich mach mir keine Sorgen darum, weil ich noch ein halbes Jahr um Deutsch zu lernen habe. 

Ich bin stolz auf mich selbst, weil ich schon im Dezember ein ziemlich kompliziertes Buch für die Schule gelesen hatte.  Jetzt lese ich gerne Bücher auf Deutsch auf Spaß.

Ich bin auch stolz auf mich selbst, weil ich normalerweise mit meinen Freunden aus den USA die auch hier in Deutschland sind Deutsch spreche.  Manchmal ist es auch einfacher: mein Englisch ist ja immer noch besser als mein Deutsch, aber meine Gedanke sind oft auf Deutsch, und auch wenn sie auf Englisch sind haben sie einen deutschen Satzbau.

Hobbys

Ich bin immer beschäftigt.  Noch ein Bedauern, das ich zu diesem Jahr habe ist, dass ich nicht alle meine Bewerbungen für Universitäten und Stipendien vorher geschrieben hatte.  Das heißt, dass ich ziemlich oft Bewerbungen jetzt schreiben muss.  Deshalb habe ich nicht so viel Zeit, wie ich haben möchte.

Trotzdem kann ich viel unternehmen: ich spiele in drei Bands, ich spiele Badminton, und ich verbringe Zeit mit meinen Freunden.  In meinen Bands spiele ich Posaune, und normalerweise alle zwei Monate haben wir ein Konzert.  Da meine Gastfamilie ein Klavier hat, versuche ich Klavier zu lernen.  Fast jeden Tag übe ich ein Bisschen, und ich glaube, dass ich einigen Erfolg gehabt habe.

Alex und ich spielen jeden Montag Badminton, und wenn ich die Gelegenheit habe, spiele ich  auch manchmal in der Woche mit Freunden. 

Chez moi koche ich, lese ich, spiele mit Hannes und Mia, und spalte gerne Holz.  Ich habe fast sieben Dinosaurier!

Tim

Letter to Harry

Earlier today I got a letter from Harry, who's one of my best buds in the US.  I figured I'd share some of the things I wrote back- the bold texts are excerpts from Harry's letter to me.

Hey, man! How's it going?

Hello!  Life is good, everything is going well.  It’s great to hear from you.

How are you? Are you taking over Germany yet?

I tried to take over Germany but I got distracted by beer, beautiful women, delicious food, and great people.  Then I realized that if taking over a country would be so demanding that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it, it’s probably better just to enjoy the time I’ve got here.  So no dramatic country-stealing heists, sorry.

Are you dreaming in German yet?

I actually dreamed in German my first two weeks here, and I still dream in German now.  The only difference is that now I understand what everyone’s saying in my dreams… that’s important!

Big congrats, by the way, on UCLA.

Thanks for the congratulations!  I’m not sure if I’m going there yet, but it’s really nice to know that in the worst-case-scenario I have somewhere to go.  I got into Marquette a few months ago, with practically a full scholarship, but as winter went on I realized that I have absolutely no desire to study somewhere so cold as Milwaukee- if I didn’t get in anywhere else, I would even consider doing another year at LHS.  So yeah, it’s nice to have somewhere to turn too.

The play ended this past Saturday.

I had a nice convo with Ali the other day about the play- it sounds like in the end it came together pretty well.  I heard the crew pulled through, Sean told me that they earned the Stagemanager’s award, and Ali said the acting was impressive.  Good work to all of you!  I missed the Festival- that’s always such a good time, regardless of who wins or loses.  Festival people are just cool people.

School is fine. I feel like you would have finally enjoyed English this year. Mr. I is the man.

I’m glad to hear school is good.  I’ve heard good things about Mr. I.  From what I’ve heard, he sounds like my Deutsch teacher, Herr Schlauss- Herr Schlauss is also wicked cool.  His lesson is almost entirely a lecture- he tries to make it interactive, but with some notable exceptions it’s usually him on the main-stage.  We just finished comparing texts from Kant and Schiller, and a while back we did some work with Kleist- I really like the German philosophers.  German is a good language for philosophy!  Somehow, though, I always find myself comparing them to Voltaire (who’s the man), or Descartes.  French is pretty cool too. You’d probably enjoy Herr Schlauss, too- he gives you a lot to think about.

Finally I’ve been able to get a little back in the swing of French- until last month, I literally could not put three words together in a sentence.  I could still read it perfectly well, and I could still understand it very well, but when I tried to speak it always came out German.  I’m still having trouble- I’m nowhere near as fluid as I was when I left- but now I have hope.  I was really afraid about losing it earlier this year.  I love French!

I actually have no doubt that my grammar has gotten much better when I’m writing.    Madame would be proud!  I’ve learned a lot of little things that are starting to stack up- I would like to keep studying French in college, I think. 

It’s actually funny- my teacher here is appalled at my American accent (in French.  Apparently my accent is much less noticeable when I speak German) (she’s French, by the way.  Her German is also sometimes less than perfect).  I don’t know if I’m making progress in that field, but I can definitely tell where I’m wrong.  The word “mais”, for example- I’ve always said it like “may”, but it’s really more like “meh”.  Or “ai”, as in “j’ai”, that’s also more of a “eh”.  Everything I say is too hard.

Physics sucks.  (not a quote)

We just started Physics on Monday- we have it every day for two hours for the next few weeks.  I think somewhere on my blog I explained the way the Epoch schedule works… but anyway, the class started Physics last year, so I’m a little behind, but I took out a textbook and I’ll probably be caught up by the end of the week.

I miss you a ton, dude.

I’ve been missing the Fantastic Four (and a woman!) recently.  I was actually just talking about you guys to a friend of mine the other day.  I’ve realized that when I talk about High School, it sounds totally ridiculous.  I try to explain to people about the Mez, and how I used to go up there and chill in my hammock during Math and English, but somehow I don’t come clear.  Or our Chemistry class and how ridiculous it was:  poke wars, oxidizers, experiments, Triff’s mad skills, goldfish… or about the terribly depressed and pitifully pitiful Mr. Tarr, or about the adventures of French Class, with Jeopardy and cookies and Communists.  I think, though, that these kinds of memories are ones that you need to share with the people who lived them with you- so yes, I miss you all too.

With your permission, I would like to take over Team Trix for the year

Not only would I do you have my permission and my blessing, but also my thanks for taking over Team Trix- that’s really important to me, that Team Trix lives on. 

I hope you're living it up in Deutschland!

I am! I’m doing really great, as I said.  My German has come along considerably in the last month or two- I can definitely carry on a conversation without trouble.  German is an incredibly complex language (there are 16 possibilities for the word “the”), and my grammar is really terrible, and everyone can tell that I am a foreigner, but I can understand just about everything and everyone can just about understand my crappy German- and that’s what’s really important.  I’m working on my accent and starting to get a hand on the grammar, though, so I’m still making progress. 

Outside of school, I’ve been keeping really busy.  I’m playing in two Jazz Ensembles (down from three at the beginning of the year), taking a standards- dance course and a swing dance course, and play badminton with my host father. 

In April I’ll be flying to Sweden for vacation with my family, and then in May I have a three-week internship at a submarine building company.  I’ve got a lot going on, but it’s better that way.

Liebe Grüße-

Tim

Stuff

A few thoughts-

1.  Today is Pi Day in America!  Since Germany only has twelve months and writes its dates sillily, Pi Day hasn't been invented here yet.

2.  Today is Lord Todd Norton's birthday.  Alles gut zum Geburtstag, Todd!

3.  The people at the Luebeck Library said that I'm not allowed to get a library card because I don't have a German ID, but I'm going to try again later this week.  Maybe I'll get a nicer lady behind the counter.  Geo has one, after all.

4.  I got accepted to UCLA!

5.  I read an article in the paper that reminded me of Harry- I know his usual magazine is The Week, but for some reason I associate Wired with him, too.  Anyway, Wired nominated the internet for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Yeah, the internet.  Weird.

6.  I found a dance partner for my swing class!  Coincidentally, she too is named Sinja.

7.  I gave a presentation in French class on Friday.  I think it was well written, but the teacher commented once again on my American accent.  It's "tres, tres fort".  I don't think I'll ever figure out a French accent.

8.  I'm not too concerned about the French accent right now.  Just a German accent would be nice.  That's not happening any time soon either, though.

9.  I'm procrastinating.  I really ought to be writing a report on calculating vectors.

Ciao for now!

April Showers

April showers came a month early.

Luebeck's been rainy recently, but it's starting to warm up.  It's been hovering between 0 and 7 degrees Celsius for the last week or so, and the forecast is rainy for all of next week.  Most of the snow is gone, which is good, but now everything is wet.  Just one day of sun, though, and we can burn up the wet and everything will be beautiful- I'm sure of it.

I had a good weekend!  On Friday I was at the Walli with some friends- we saw a concert there that was pretty good.  The band was Dub Spencer and Trance Hill- it was a soft rock/reggae kind of sound.  I hadn't heard of them before, but it was a good time.  The cool this about the Walli, though, is that you always meet someone.  I went with a few friends, ended up meeting up with half dozen more, saw a few German AFers in the crowd, and ended up spending half the night talking with some random guy about the anti-Nazi march in a few weeks that he's helping to plan. Der Walli a pretty Ossie place- everyone's either a goth, and emo, or a radical leftist, but all in all a good crowd.

Last night I watched "Das Wunder von Bern" with Geo and Anke.  The lady at the history museum in Bonn (or was it Koeln?) had recommended it, and it was a good pick.  Anyone who's looking for a good German film should take a look.

 On second thought, this place looks a lot sketchier than it really is...

Tanzen!

So I've been taking a Standards dance class for the last few weeks.  It includes:

Jive
Salsa
Disco Fox
Cha-Cha-Cha (or is it just Cha-Cha?  I never knew)
Foxtrot
Waltz (fast & slow)

There might be one that I forgot, but that's about it.  It's a fun class, but very slow.  It's a big group of kids, though, so I can understand why they need to proceed slowly. 

Today I also started a four-week Swing class.  That's really cool, and it's a much smaller group.  It's definitely a better way to learn.  BUT I have a predicament!  I need a partner!  Today I danced with a lady who's husband was sick- we got along very well- but for the next three weeks I need a partner.  Problem is, nobody is free on Wednesdays.  Plus, whoever I do find will need to learn everything from the beginning.  That won't be so hard, but still... we'll see what happens.

Have a nice Wednesday, everyone!

A German Haircut

So this was like a badass haircut.

First things first, I've never had an hour-and-a-half long haircut before.  Ever.  In Germany, in the USA, in my basement- ever.  Until today.

Anyway, I got to the studio at 5- the girl was waiting for me (I had called ahead).  She took my coat and sat me right down, and then offered me something to drink.  That's standard here- every time I go to the friseur I'm offered coffee, water, or tea.  I think that's kind of cool- we should have drinks in our haircutteries, too.

The girl (Sarah) proceeded to rinse, shampoo, and then condition my hair with TWO different conditioners.  So much conditioner habe ich noch nie gesehen!  Then after she dried it off, she put some more stuff in my hair!  I asked what it was, she replied bluntly "Haar Wasser".  Hair water?  What's that supposed to mean?

It's not very important what hair water is, though, because once the hair water was in she gave me a scalp massage for a good twenty minutes.  I guess she has to show a good head-massage on her test this week too, but whatever the case was, I'm not complaining.  I've never had a head-message in a haircuttery in the US, either.

After that was done she proceeded to cut my hair.  I think she did a good job, but she sure took a long time.  When that was finished, the hair-master of the salon came and looked over the work, evened a few things out, gave her approval, and went on her way.

Sarah told me that if I wanted, I could come back in a few weeks and get another free haircut.


In any case, I'd say I lucked out.  Mia has given her tentative approval, Hannes declares my haircut "ganz witzig", and I'm happy with it.  Success!

The Haircut Yet-To-Come

Hello!

After school today I went into Luebeck to get my phone fixed (I crushed it under my hip while ice skating Saturday).  That wasn't very exciting, though.  What was exciting was afterward: as I was walking to the bus station, I began to wonder if I should just go ahead and get my haircut- I had been planning on getting it cut for a while, I had some money in my pocket and some time to kill, and I was already in the city... I just didn't really want to spend the money.  I had hoped that Alena would cut my hair by the midstay camp two weeks ago, but we ran out of time, and I had to go home hairy-headed.  Anyway, as I pondered over whether or not to go zum Friseur, a girl came up to me.  She explained that she was a hair-styling student and had her final test on Friday, and wanted to get some practice in before then.  She proceeded to ask if I wanted a free haircut- I said yes- and then she gave me her name and the address of her studio, and told me to come in tomorrow.

How cool is that?  Sometimes life just works.  Hoorah!

Vermissen

Things I Miss:

-Salsa
-Toaster Oven
-Triggor
-Driving around in Sean's car doing absolutely nothing
-Tortilla chips
-My Mezz
-That velvet jacket I had
-The Salvation Army
-The Fantastic Four
-Jazz Combo/Concert Band/Band Trips
-Working
-The Mobil
-The workroom
-Driving
-The fan over our stove
-Ties
-My family & friends

Things I'll Miss Once I'm Back in the US
-Bread
-Broetchen
-The piano
-Busses
-Beer
-Karlchen (sometimes.  Sometimes he's just a pain.)
-Decken (super-blankets!)
-Gouda
-German cake
-Bigband
-My family & friends
-German windows & frische Luft!
-Bio-
-Woodburning-ovens
-German
-1- and 2- euro pieces
-Diskos

A Haiku Garden...

Caused in part by the snowflakes drifting past the window, vectors in Math dissolved into a lovely haiku dialog.  Anna Rosa accompanied me in my drifting thoughts.  Here's what our crumpled notes said:

Ein neue Eiszeit
Eisbaeren in den Strassen
Luebeck's Wetter sucks.

Luebeck is ugly
and I can't do maths
wanna go away

Ich will Gras, Voegel, 
Sonne, Meer, und weissen Strand.
Wo ist der Fruehling?

Ich weiss es auch nicht.
Es ist Maerz und es schneit noch!
Das ist so haesslich!

Suchen wir mal, ja?
Vielleicht hat er sich versteckt.
Fliegen wir suedlich!

I wish everyone sunny skies and a warm day!
Tim

Money in the Deutschland

Anonymous left a comment on my blog a bit ago- he asked:

I am interested in becoming an exchange student in Germany myself, and I've got a question you might be able to answer.

How are you handling your money? As in, are you using traveler checks, an ATM card, a debit card...?

For anyone who's interested in becoming an exchange student, this is a good question- that's why I'm answering this in a post, and not just the comments.  I'd like to apologize for waiting so long to answer this, though.  Sorry Mr. Anonymous!

In any case, I opened up an ATM account in the US, and put my mother's name on it as well.  This way, I can access my money from (pretty much) any ATM in Germany, and my mother can transfer money from my savings account into that account as necessary.  ATM's give you good enough exchange rates, and if you have a nice bank they have low or no fees.  I would recommend this option.

American credit cards won't get you far in Germany- all Germans have an EZ card.  I'm not sure what it stands for, but in any case it's a little different.  Expect to have to withdraw cash from ATMs and then pay with it- even for big purchases.

Nobody uses checks in Germany.  Don't bring them.  You'll get laughed at.

Also: Germany is really expensive.  In addition to the exchange rate, food is expensive, transportation can be expensive, traveling is definitely expensive, and clothing is very very expensive.  Plus, you begin to pick up costs that you may not have covered in the US- a good exercise is to keep track of everything you pay for in the US for a month (and everything your parents pay for you) and then multiply that by 1.5 or so.  That's probably about right.

I think.

Anyway, save up enough money beforehand that you have more than you need, not less!

le Skiurlaub

Good morning, America!  Good evening, Deutschland!

Yesterday I got back from my Midstay Camp, but that's not what I'm talking about in this post.  I'm going to ask you all to backtrack deep into the Ides of February.  

One more of the dozens of cool things about the Waldorfschule is that it has a February vacation.  Nobody in Schleswig-Holstein (my state) has a February vacation.  Waldorf just kicks ass.

Anyway, after school on Friday we drove down to Munich.  That's a loooong drive.  We started around 5:00 pm, got to Wurzeburg and picked up Sinja around 2:00, and finally ended up in Munich around 5:00 am.  I think.  At that point I was pretty out of it.

In Muenchen we hooked up with Christian, Ina, and their kids, Oskar and Olivia, and then eventually finished our drive together to Lenggries.  

We lived in this cute little cottage for the week.  It was out of the way of everything; it was literally in the middle of the woods on the base of the mountain.  You did need to drive from there to the slopes, but it wasn't more than a ten minute drive.  It was a very nice location.

The skiing was good!  There were two sides of the mountain, 34 km of pistes, and 18 lifts, including a gondola.  Plus it was a mountain in the Alps- regardless of whether it was good or bad, it is, being able to say  "I've been skiing in the Alps" is instant cred.

I spent most of the time skiing with the Sinja.  That was really fun- even after she realized I have zero ski technique, we still skiied all the little wooded trails and mogul trails and tight little passages we could find.  We found some pretty cool shortcuts between different parts of the mountain, and I think I've become a better skiier.  I still have zero technique, but that's okay.  

Sinja left on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I rented a snowboard for the day.  I didn't have enough money to take a real lesson, but I asked a few people to help me out, and (for the most part) everyone lent me ten or twenty minutes to teach me something new.  By the end of the day I could get down the bunny hill, but not too much more.  I'm glad I tried, though- I've always wondered about that.

Evening were spent in our Cottage- we were something like 20 people; Lotta brought Ruth along, Mia brought Greta, Sinja war dabei, Hannes's friend Konstantin and his whole family was there (including an Amerikanerin au pair), Christian and Ina's family was there, the Baake horde, and some friends of Ina's... it was a real party.  We played Maxchen (without drinking), doppelkopf, and did a lot of reading.  Very relaxing!

Here are some photos of stuff!